sales representative

call center supervisor

The Bradford Hammacher Group

What is the best part of working at the company?
The worst place I've ever worked at in my career. They treat their newly hired employees with the out most respect and give you a sense of a positive work environment and all they want to see is you be nothing but successful. It's not until your hired on full-time that their true colors come through and then begin to play with your mental well-being. At end of the day, all that positive influences and coaching as they say goes all down the drain.  Because you reach a certain point in employment with them where it begins to stress you out. What I mean is if you don't meet your monthly targets you will be penalized to the third degree.  Now it could go two ways.  One you can be let go without warning as they like to do so. Or two, where like any company that a procedure in place that needs to be followed. You'd think they would actually follow it.  And that is 3 warnings and then your dismissed. Which in my case it was let go without cause. Please be aware of your surroundings when it comes to working for The Bradford Exchange and if there is any cause of concern where you're feeling very stressed and it's affecting your performance, but mostly your mental health. Please get help immediately. Because your mental health and well being should be your first concern than a job where you are being treated with disrespect and indecency or even because of your disability. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Trying to meet monthly targets and micro managing 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very stressful and demanding. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Go in do your job and hope foe a good day. Because you sold and to hope by the end of the month you met your monthly targets.

Honestly Bradford has really nice employees and managers! And don't worry at all if you don't have experience they will teach you everything you need to know (keep in mind it's a lot of learning) the team leads don't yell or get mad at you if you make a mistake which is amazing!!! Just know that the last supervisor that spoke inappropriately to a worker was demoted. 

The only down sides to the job are
 
1.Clients.. a few of them are VERY rude

2. When I say you will be over worked I do mean it. During mid day while there's 20-30 people taking calls (each call has to be under 5 minutes) in the centre there will be at least 50 clients waiting for most of the day and I mean AT VERY LEAST. You will get back to back to back calls the whole shift. Unless you're working nights. 

3. The computer work is quite scary at first because they have a program that can't be used with a mouse so everything on it is accessed with codes on the key bored which is stressful at first if you don't know computers well

Overall Bradford is a good place to work! The employees and supervisors do really make it worth it. Yes, you will get stressed out at times and yes you will worry that your not good at the job but trust me everyone goes through that. After a while everything becomes second nature.

They have a demonstrated history of hiring through contracts with temporary agencies, then hiring the employee so that the start another 3 month probation, then firing the employee right before that probation ends.

They use people. The job is stressful due to a huge pressure for unreasonable upsells for things people do  not want or need. If you are ever sick, you are made to feel like a villain for taking time off work to get better. If you decide to work here, make sure to come to work sick so that you infect everyone else because that's obviously what they would prefer.

Choose from one of the MANY other call centers in London to work for, steer clear of this bottom of the barrel American company who cares only about profits, not people.

While at Bradford Exchange I was give the opportunity to speak to clients on an international level and learn very valuable skills. In was able to be officially trained in customer service, have access to clients accounts. Speaking to some of these clients I was\ able to learn a lot and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing at the end of the call I was able to help the client and the client was satisfied. However, the job could be very difficult as Customer service can be stressful especially when its all you do for your entire shift. Overall I enjoyed my time at Bradford Exchange and appreciate everything I was able to learn from that job.

A typical day at work:

Overnight shift starts at 11pm, goes until 7:30am . I answer  phone calls and emails/correspondence with little to no supervision, although there is always help available if needed.

Phone calls consist of placing orders an solving billing/shipping issues as well as modifying specialized orders as needed.

Upselling is encouraged but there is no penalization for not making a sale so long as the attempt is there.

This is honestly one of the best call centers in London. They treat you like a human and are very understanding to the fact that work is not your entire life.

Not a fun place to work, they want you to shill overpriced junk to mainly senior citizens. Not to mention they record any time away from your computer even when you go to the bathroom which they will penalize you for if you go over 10 minutes in total which is shared with your wrap up time. Also, you have to bring your own lunch or you will go hungry most of the time as it is in an out of the way location with the nearest restaurant being a timmys 15 minutes away on foot.

Although this doesn't become apparent until after a few weeks as the training staff are nice

The best advice I can give to perspective employees, ask a lot of questions during the interview.

If you are going applying for a sales position:

If you are good at selling and you know it, then you may succeed here, and make a middle class living, or slightly less.

If you ARE NOT 100% confident in your ability to sell, don't accept an offer here. 

For young people just start your career, this place has no respect for shaping young minds. Don't waste your time.

At the end of the day it comes down to results and cold or semi-warm calls are hard. 

They will promise the world during the interview... be skeptical

Worked for a "special" division of Bradford, selling over priced coins to people over 60.

Their customer base is your grandma and they are dying.  Their marketing team is stuck in the 80s, the head of marketing doesn't like the team sending emails with prices.  Continues to use mail outs and cold calls to sell.

Have ideas to innovate "hey thanks for showing interest, we'll get back to you."  10 months, no mention of it.  Even our competitors are trying new things.

At this point, you're on a sinking ship. Look elsewhere for work.

Low salary, decent benefits, but not worth it.

I have been working with Bradford Exchange for a few years now, and it has been a great experience. The other employees are amazing to work alongside and there are many career advancement opportunities, with opportunities to try out different departments. Both the pay and benefits are highly satisfactory. While many call centers are considered a high stress environment, the community here is very supportive, and there are plenty of incentives and events that occur throughout the year to help us feel at home. I highly recommend trying out Bradford Exchange.

Management and staff are exceptional to work with.  The training provided by the company is maintained on a continuing basis and up to date with facts and information.
Everyday at work is different there is a lot of variety and the company cares about the employees.  The work envirment is fast paced, friendly and easy going. 
The hardest part of the job is continuously dealing with irate customers, but this is also the most enjoyable as well.  It is very rewarding to have a customer who was irate at the beginning of the call be laughing and happy when the call ends.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sales representative 7 salaries reported	$17.50 per hour
Call center supervisor 2 salaries reported	$57,000 per year

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